whether M. Herriot can really make an end of all this and start on a new basis of con

ciliation and coöperation. Certain it is that Germany, with her incorrigible political and diplomatic stupidity, her blockheaded Nationalists, her hordes of embittered refugees from the Ruhr, will not make it easy for him. But with the solid support of every class and party in this country, and the active collaboration of Mr. MacDonald, he may succeed.

Le Temps, whose political editor, Jean Herbette, criticized Poincaré's inflexible attitude on the Rhine for some months before the last election, publishes an article by its Berlin correspondent dwelling with considerable appreciation upon the strong undercurrent of conciliatory pacifist feeling in Germany. This writer says:

In spite of the justifiable distrust and skepticism we feel as a result of our experiences since the occupation of the Ruhr, it is impossible not to render honor to the good faith and the courage with which the men in charge of the Centre Parties pursue their policy of moral disarmament, in spite of all the abuse and the physical dangersErzberger's assassination- to which they have exposed themselves, and the cruel disappointments they have encountered in their efforts to conciliate the two great neighboring nations.

The Nationalists, thanks to their material resources, their unscrupulous but shrewd and bold leaders, and the medieval mentality of a part of the population, do constitute, it is true, a formidable threat to peace, to republican institutions, and to the welfare of the German people. But every day since the elections of May 11 the forces opposed to them have been gaining confidence. And if nothing happens from outside to check their recovery, if the foreign situation remains favorable or improves, these revenge-preaching Nationalists, in spite of their clamor, their military fanfares, their venal press, will soon experience an eclipse visible even to the most pessimistic.

The German Foreign Minister, Dr. Stresemann, delivered an address in

Karlsruhe last month defending the Cabinet for accepting the Dawes project. In speaking of the occupied territories, however, he asserted that it was of great importance for Germany not only to have the total sum of her obligations to the Allies fixed, but also to conclude an arrangement by which the Allies would pay the cost of occupation. The latter measure would constitute an automatic check upon any unnecessary increase of garrisons in that region. At the same time, it would fortify Germany's solvency and enable her to make more liberal Reparations payments.

Dr. Luther, the Minister of Finance, in an address delivered the same day at Pyrmont in Lower Saxony, warned his hearers against a relapse into the visionary state of mind so largely responsible for Germany's recent evils. There is no panacea for the present distress. 'Our only hope lies in patient labor and very gradual betterment.' Germany must establish her credit abroad before she can take any positive step forward toward recovery. To do that she must avoid future inflation. One of the big tasks facing the Cabinet is to adjust taxation to the actual needs of the Government, in order to avoid another era of currency depreciation.

FRANCE AND JAPAN

THE London Daily Telegraph recently reported: 'It is believed that a FrancoJapanese understanding is now in existence, covering Pacific and Chinese questions.' This conjecture has existed for some time in diplomatic

circles. It has been noted that the Japanese delegate on the League of Nations Council, who formerly voted with Great Britain in Central European issues, has voted with France at the last two sessions. France supported what is assumed to be the policy of

Japan - and of the United States in opposing the recent agreement between China and Russia. Japan and France are suspected of standing together on the disarmament question. It chances, though this by no means proves the existence of a secret compact, that the two Powers have followed parallel policies in respect to a number of minor matters in China such as blocking the proposed readjustment of China's customs duties and the abolition of likin, authorized at the Washington Conference. All the Powers represented at the Washington Conference formally engaged to file with the other Powers 'a list of all treaties, conventions, exchanges of notes, or other international agreements' that they might have with China or with any other Power or Powers in relation to China, which were still in force.

Such gossip, which does not necessarily have a very substantial basis of fact, was naturally revived when M. Merlin, Governor-General of French Indo-China, visited Japan and Korea last May. Nominally the ostensible object of his visit was to convey congratulations to the Prince Regent upon his marriage, and to conduct preliminary negotiations for a revision of the treaty of commerce and navigation between Japan and Indo-China. Japan imports rice from the French possession, and is interested in widening her market in that region. Rumors of these negotiations caused some alarm in France, where manufacturers of textiles and machinery protested that any relaxation of the present barriers against their Oriental competitors would deprive them of profitable markets.

The Japan Weekly Chronicle devoted a long leader to this topic, in which it dwells upon the impressiveness of the reception given Governor Merlin, the

discreet reserve with which the Japanese press discussed the visit, and the possibility of an understanding between the two countries without a formal treaty violating the Washington Conference already mentioned. Among other things the editor drops the following suggestive remark: 'Just as Japan has supported Rumania's claim to Bessarabia, with a great strengthening of Rumania's hands in consequence, so, too, vigorous French support in China might well strengthen Japan's hands and deter any other Power from protesting. . . .'

The most engaging feature of Mr. Merlin's visit is the publicity with which its importance is admitted and even advertised. As the old diplomacy develops its new camouflage, we are likely to have important diplomatic arrangements concluded without any trumpets. In any case, it is by their fruits that we shall know what tricks patriotic statesmen with a taste for intrigue indulge in by way of promoting the interests of their countries. By the degree of Franco-Japanese coöperation in respect of the Chinese Eastern Railway and other matters we shall be able to estimate the

diplomatic importance of Mr. Merlin's

visit.

All this may have some connection with the attempt of a Chinese assassin to kill Governor Merlin at a reception in Canton, which resulted in the death of seven of the guests.

ANCIENT EVILS DIE SLOWLY

THOSE who imagine that patrolling the sea against slave-traders is an extinct function of modern navies will be interested to learn that the British Government has just dispatched a division of fast destroyers to coöperate with vessels of the French and Italian navies in curbing the slave-trading dhows that ply between Africa and Arabia. A correspondent of the Lon

don Morning Post gives us this brief word-picture of this eternal vigilance:The sun has gone down; yet neither puff of wind nor breath of air less torrid gladdens the heart of the Red Sea wanderer. Rather, it seems, earth and sea conspire to yield up their vital heat to make the night unendurable. We compose ourselves to 'sleep,' resigned to the refined torture of a Red Sea night.

Away on our port quarter we can yet discern the silhouette of an Arab dhow. She is something less than a hundred feet long, of the picturesque type distinctive from Suez to Aden for its stilted bulwarks, super-constructed with matting, its raking masts, and its lateen sails. She has, too, a turn of speed, for is she not the corsair of the Barbary pirates? Do not her masts rake forward as theirs did; do not her baharis to-day reef and furl her sails from the peak as they did of old; and is she not

in truth a fine sea-boat, unkempt, perhaps,

but fast, almost incredibly fast on a wind?

She is something of a mystery-ship withal, hove-to at sunset thirty miles out of Jedda. Is she waiting for the night breeze to carry her down coast on her lawful pursuits? Is she hoping to slip inside the reefs and disembark a cargo of slaves in her good time?

From Suez to the Straits of Bab el Mandeb the Red Sea is well over a thousand miles long, while its breadth is never more than two hundred and fifty miles. In parts the navigable channel is whittled down to twenty miles. On either side immense reefs shield the coasts, often with good navigable water inside a blessing to small craft on evil purpose bent. With a fair wind, slaves can be embarked at sunset on the African side and in the morning be making the Arabian coast.

The Regent of Abyssinia, perhaps influenced in part by the desire to appear well with his hosts on his recent visit to Western Europe, issued, before he left home, an edict forbidding the sale or purchase of slaves in his country. He did not, however, emancipate existing slaves because, as the proclamation alleges, if liberated at once they

Christianity was originally an Oriental religion, and the Japanese can understand it better than the Americans. It is a disgrace for Japanese engaged in Christian missionary work in their own country to receive material aid from the United States.

At present there are more than 800 missionaries in Japan under the auspices of America, and our country is spending millions of dollars for their maintenance. According to this propagandist, the withdrawal of our assistance will unify Christianity in Japan and enable the 300,000 Japanese Christians to develop and organize their faith in their own way, with a better prospect of converting the remainder of their fellow countrymen than exists at present.

Yorodzu calls for a moral revolt against America inspired by somewhat different ideals. Its editor says:

Schiller sounded the tocsin that roused young Germans from idle slumber when their country was overrun by triumphant

enemies. . . . Like the dreaming and indolent young Germans of that time, our young men of to-day are decadent and pleased only with sentimental literature. .. We doubt if they have any adequate idea of patriotism and the spirit of selfsacrifice. Now an insult such as our forefathers never knew has been inflicted upon us by the United States. A Chinese sage wisely said that when a nation was careless of its dignity and imprudent in its conduct Providence would rebuke it. Let this insult by America be a lesson to us. We must liberate ourselves from the iron fetters of decadence.

The Germany of Fichte and the Italy of Mazzini and Garibaldi are cited as examples for the Japan of to-day to emulate.

MINOR NOTES

ON the date of the wedding of the Prince Regent of Japan, the Japan Advertiser published a special issue showing the remarkable recovery of the country since the earthquake. That disaster encouraged the introduction of mechanical improvements. For instance, the number of motor

RADIO IN RUSSIA

cars and trucks in Tokyo has more than doubled during the past nine months. Before the earthquake there were seldom more than twenty taxis waiting at Tokyo station. To-day the line of cars seeking fares numbers more than one hundred, and the rickshas are being rapidly displaced. The Ginza has resumed its old aspect, and is again one of the liveliest shopping thoroughfares in the Orient.

THE German press is making much of the inauguration last May at Shanghai of a German-Chinese university. The institution embraces provisionally an engineering and a medical school, and has accommodations for 400 students. It will receive matriculants from the graduates of all the German secondary schools in China, and its standards and courses will entitle its graduates to the same rank as graduates of universities in Germany. German language and literature are obligatory major subjects. The mechanical equipment of the engineering school is said to be unexcelled, but the medical department is not yet satisfactorily equipped. GERMANY'S STUDENT MONARCHISTS

THERE is perhaps no other country in the world where women have played so important a part in politics or where they have exercised a greater influence on history than in France.

The French Revolution, in its very beginning, was but a duel between two women - Queen Marie-Antoinette and Madame Roland. Had neither been born, one might well ask whether the Revolution might not have been carried out differently.

The Second Empire was much more personified in Empress Eugénie than in Emperor Napoleon III. Had the Empress not existed, one might indeed ask whether there would have been a war in 1870.

Under the Third Republic, the political salons played a large rôle. After the Franco-Prussian War, Madame Adam's salon, of which Gambetta was the central figure, symbolized France's indomitable will to revive and witnessed the birth of the alliance with Russia. The salon of Madame de Bonnemains later saw the rise and the fall of that strange star in France's political firmament General Boulanger. The salon of Madame de Loynes, where the Royalist and Nationalist leaders met daily at the time of the Dreyfus case, was the great centre of resistance against the revision of the trial and the rehabilitation of the condemned captain. And the salon of Madame Waldeck-Rousseau was the strong Republican citadel wherefrom was launched the entire plan of separation of Church and State, and the dissolu

tion of the various Catholic congregations.

Yet, in this country, where so many formidable political events have taken place under the influence of women, they have no political status. They can't even vote in municipal elections. They can't even sit in a town council, nor can they serve on a jury. Up until only a few years ago they could not even act as witnesses at a marriage. What indeed is the why and wherefore of this strange state of affairs?

There is but one answer. It is so because the women of France want it to be so. And it will continue to be so as long as the women of France desire it.

Five times in the course of my journalistic career I had the opportunity of questioning women who, by their station in life, as well as by their personality and genius, were the real representatives of the women of France. Five times I received the same reply when I mentioned woman suffrage, and in each I found nothing but disdain, scorn, or dislike for votes and voting.

The first time I questioned a woman of note on this subject was some months before the war, when I had the honor of an interview with the late Empress Eugénie. I had undertaken to elucidate an historical problem regarding the Second Empire, and the deposed sovereign, who was the living incarnation of this period, very graciously accorded me an audience at her Cap Martin villa, near Nice. I don't know how it occurred; but in the course of our con